1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to a solar cell and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a solar cell including a patterned front electrode and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as it is expected that conventional energy resource such as petroleum and coal will be exhausted, interest in alternative energy to replace the conventional energy resources is gradually increasing. Among them, a solar cell is spotlighted as a new generation cell using a semiconductor device for directly converting solar energy into electric energy.
In other words, a solar cell is a device converting the solar energy into the electric energy by using a photovoltaic effect. Solar cells can be classified into a crystal silicon solar cell, a thin-film solar cell, a dye-sensitized solar cell, and an organic solar cell. The crystal silicon solar cell is generally the most widely used. In the solar cell, it is important to improve an efficiency, which is defined as a ratio of generated electric energy to incident solar energy.
On the other hand, in a conventional silicon solar cell, a front electrode is formed by screen-printing a paste. However, for the front electrode formed by the screen printing, it is difficult to have a fine pattern, and the aspect ratio is low. Although a pattern formed by a gravure off-set printing may be smaller the pattern formed by the screen printing, a busbar electrode having a width larger than 100 μm is difficult to form by the gravure off-set printing. Therefore, when the front electrode is formed by the gravure off-set printing, an additional process for forming the busbar electrode is necessary after forming a finger line via the gravure off-set printing. Accordingly, the manufacturing process is complicate, and productivity is low.